
Day 2 is our full day in the kayaks, complete with full caves etc. The morning was spent cruising into some quiet lagoons and enjoying the perfect weather while paddling around. For lunch we docked up against the boat and they served up a 'white fish' to us. Whats a white fish? I dont know, but thats what our guide called it. I thought Id give it a shot, until we noticed the GUTS still inside of it, normal in Asia, not so normal in Canada. I scraped some off and ate a bit of the fish meat anyways, and a bit of shrimp. After lunch we all jumped off the second deck of the boat into the ultra warm (and ultra salty) water. The SanFran couple took awhile to jump, until the guy nearly pushed her off, good times. Awesome swimming then lounging in the sun up on the deck again.
The afternoon though was ... interesting. We cruised to a small cave that you could barely notice, where our guide then greased the palms of some local 'environmental guards'. Duc tells us its a 200m narrow cave and we'll pop out at the other end. As we're paddling in, its getting darker, and musky, and Im getting that clausterphobic feeling. 140m in, and Im battling off wave after wave of panic attacks, and its narrowed to 2m wide. We've had to put all the paddles inside, and use our hands to steer/direct the kayaks holding onto the roof, which is about a foot above the kayak. Now Im leaning way wayyy back in the boat, my forehead is scraping the top, and even typing about it now has me breaking into a cold sweat. Like my Dad says, "why cant you be normal and take a vacation to Vegas??". With my headlamp I can see Duc (guide) in front but he's stuck, trying to literally push his kayak deeper into the water so he can squeeze onward.
He gives us all a choice, we can get out and swim (but risk getting cut up on the floor and walls of the cave he adds after), or we can reverse and turn around. He assures us that the tide isnt coming up too fast, but I dont see "Tide Expert" across his forehead so Im all for getting the hell out of there, as was everyone else. The reverse was interesting, and once we were heading OUT it felt alot better. Showing impeccable timing, Duc then told us of the story of another kayaking company who lost 3 tourists in that cave last May when the tide came in and they were trapped. Lovely.


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